The Ayenda Foundation has granted an additional $5,000 to the Folk Arts Center of New England in order to print 5,000 more copies of the Qu Qu Qu Barg-e-Chinaar: Children’s Songs from Afghanistan songbooks. Ayenda Foundation was proudly one of the first supporters of this wonderful program that started from an idea that Dr. Louise Pascale had while she was a United States Peace Corps volunteer living in Kabul in 1966. In 2002 Dr. Pascale decided to reprint an updated version of this songbook and nearly all 10,000 copies that were printed by various sponsors are distributed to schools all over Afghanistan.

Save the Children, Creating Hope International and Youth Education Services will assist in the distribution of this new printing to kindergartens, orphanages and learning centers in Parwan, Barekab, Sar-e-Pul, Faryab, Balkh, Baghlan, Nangrahar, Bamiyan, Kabul, Herat and Paktia Provinces and the Kabul/Qarabagh District.

Toronto musician Vaheed Kaacemy also recorded the book’s 16 songs with a group of Afghan-Canadian children in Farsi, Pushto, Uzbeki and Hazaragi, eight of which are from the original songbook. The 24-page songbook with a 60-minute CD/cassette contains the Dari lyrics for all the songs, musical notation and illustrations including some of the children’s drawings from the original songbook.

Ayenda Foundation is delighted to partner with this meaningful project that not only supports the longtime tradition of song, but to preserve a piece of Afghan culture.